Search results

The study aims to discuss the special needs-centric information delivery as a new genre of the academic library services. It also sheds light on the assistive technology used to help blind or visually impaired (BVI) students to access the available digital contents and use online services conveniently. A particular emphasis placed on gaining some insights into BVIs’ perceptions towards the orientation and assistance offered by the access service librarians, as well as any experience in using assistive educational technology for reading and information access.

The authors used semi-structured interview survey to gather the necessary data from 35 BVI university students drawn from the Special Needs Services (SNS) Unit at the UAE University. The interview was concerned with use of library e-resources and online services for doing their assignments, easy-to-use facilities to access the e-resources and main challenges facing them in communicating with the librarians.

The findings revealed that the BVI students considered that the university library does not answer their needs for getting access to digital content and using online services adequately.

The Main Library should cooperate closely with the SNS Unit to get the most benefits from their experience in the BVI-devoted services to develop an efficient library information discovery and delivery to this student group.

There is scarcity of scholarly studies on the pedagogical and information acquisition challenges facing the BVI university students in the UAE higher education. This is the first research study that tackles the experience of the BVI students in using the academic library.

Scholars rely on electronic databases to conduct searches and locate relevant citations. The purpose of this paper is to compare the retrieval results on the same topic (multiple sclerosis and liberation therapy) of two commonly used databases for searching print news media: ProQuest’s Canadian Newsstand Major Dailies and Dow Jones’ Factiva.

A case study comparing two electronic searchable databases using the same keywords, date range, and newspaper-specific search parameters across three Canadian university institutions.

Considerable differences were found between institutional searches using Factiva. Factiva allows all individual users the capacity to establish systems-wide “administrator” privileges, thereby controlling the output for subsequent users if these preferences are not changed. The capacity for individual users to tailor searches within Canadian Newsstand Major Dailies was more in line with standard protocols for institutions paying for single user accounts with access to multiple sessions within that same institution: any user-specific searching/retrieval preferences are individually contained within a search and do not influence the searches of a different user.

What began as a comparative analysis of two commonly used databases for searching print news media turned into an examination of larger systemic problems. The findings call into question several factors: the integrity of a researcher-generated data set; the quality of results published in peer-reviewed journals based on researcher-generated data sets derived from established e-resource databases; the reliability of the same e-resource database across multiple institutions; and the quality of e-resource databases for scholarly research when developed to serve primarily non-academic clients.

No comparison of this kind for these particular e-resource databases has been documented in the literature. In fact, the scholarly publications that address questions of functionality and reliability of either Factiva or Proquest have not brought this issue into the discussion. Therefore, this study furthers academic discourse on the nature and reliability of database use at any academic institution and illustrates that researchers, in a variety of academic fields, cannot depend on the reliability of their search results without thoroughly consulting the various settings of their database.

This paper aims to describe the use of electronic resources and services provided at the social science library of Jimma University, Jimma. The paper is focused to find out the use of those resources by the students of information science and how frequently they are using, from where the information is accessed. Also, they have been requested about their preferences between an electronic and print journal format.

The questionnaire method is used for collecting the data from the undergraduate students of information science (2015/2016 batch). The questionnaire was distributed to 182 students, and the response rate 81.32 per cent was encouraging.

It has been found that the usage of e-journals is increasing; this is due to awareness among the students of information science about the e-resources and services. Owing to an easy access available at various places in the university, they are accessing these resources at hostels and departments more as compared to the library. Their visits to library have decreased.

The study has been limited to Jimma University undergraduate students of information science only

It suggests for future improvised solutions.

The present paper will help other institutions to understand the need for library electronic resources and motivate them to update their resources in the larger interest of the students. The paper also indicates how a suitably designed survey can show the awareness and use of types of information services, in this case, e-journals. There is a dearth of such studies in India and abroad. The methodology and findings can be applied to other libraries to reveal similar trends, as well as comparisons.

This paper aims to examine and analyse the status and differences in different components of e-resources management of business/management school libraries in India. It also examines the factors responsible for criteria/methods used in the life cycle of e-resources and e-resource management (ERM) system.

This study uses convenient sampling method as the management institutes in India are many and scattered around India. A suitably designed questionnaire has been prepared and sent to the libraries. Data collected from the librarians/library in-charge on managing e-resources in their libraries selected under study were entered into SPSS software for analysis. Further, coding and decoding of data are being done for analysis. Simple cross tabulation, simple statistical tools like mean and standard deviations and advanced statistical tools like ANOVA, chi-square test and multiple regression analysis, etc. have been applied for analysis.

E-resources management is one of the most important concepts in any academic library. After automation and digitization of library resources, there is a challenge for library professional to manage this tremendous increase in e-resources. In this study, it is observed that all libraries are not following all the steps of different components of ERM such as selection, evaluation, acquisition, license agreement and renewal/cancelation of e-resource which are essential for the better management of e-resources. The voluminous e-resource can easily be managed through the ERM system. However, this study found that better management of e-resources directly effected by the facilities of IT infrastructures available in the library and proportion of non-professional staff to total staff.

This study is confined to 38 libraries of ranked management institutes/business schools in India based on the report published in Business India, Business World and Business Today. This study is confined to issues relating to e-resources collection development, the status of IT infrastructure, life-cycle process of e-resources and tools and technology implemented to manage e-resources.

This paper provides how electronic resources are being managed by business/management school libraries in India. What are the methods/criteria they are being used in different components of the life cycle of e-resources management? In this paper, the hypothesis has been tested by using simple and advance statistical tools.

The main purpose of this paper is to examine the current practices related to e-resource collection development in management libraries of India with special reference to the National Capital Region (NCR) of Delhi with some constructive suggestions for improvement in this area.

A well-structured questionnaire was administered to the librarians of the nine management libraries under study.

The management libraries are actively involved in building e-resource collection. The budget allocation for purchase of e-resources has increased progressively over the years in majority of the libraries. The factors that, to a great extent, affect selection of e-resources include quality, subject coverage, license agreements and vendor support. The study found that libraries associated with management institutions such as ABS, DMS-IITD, FMS, BIMECH and FSM need to add more management-related databases.

The paper restricts the study exclusively to e-resources as the type of material and the librarians of nine major management institutions of NCR of Delhi as the respondents in its scope of discussion.

The study is of great importance to information professionals of similar management institutions in India. The recommendations made could also help solve some of the challenges that are being faced.

Very little is known about the electronic resource collection development practices followed in management institutes’ libraries of India owing to lack of significant research undertaken on the topic. This study is, therefore, significant because its findings fill up the existing knowledge gap in this area.

Successful information retrieval is determined by library patrons retrieving accurate, relevant, and up-to-date information stored in documents; this affects their self-efficacy, emotions, and behavior. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of mastery experiences, self-evaluation, vicarious observation of others’ experiences, social feedback, and physiological state of library patrons’ emotions after information retrieval.

A structured close-ended questionnaire survey was utilized of which 200 responses were valid and usable for data analysis. Multiple regression analysis was executed to assess the influence of personal self-evaluation, comparisons with others, physiological state, and social feedback, on the library patrons’ emotions after information retrieval.

The findings of this study indicated that social feedback had the greatest influence on the library patrons’ emotions after information retrieval, followed by personal self-evaluation and physiological state.

This study employed quantitative research design utilizing multiple regression analysis which provides useful insight for university librarians on the specific factors that have significant effects on library patrons’ emotions after information retrieval. The outcomes add a new perspective to preceding studies on library patrons’ emotions after information retrieval, which has previously been inadequately researched in the Malaysian setting.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the development of a personalised information support system to help faculty members to search various portals and e‐resources without typing the search terms in different interfaces and to obtain results re‐ordered without human intervention.

After a careful survey of various tools and techniques available for computerised client‐centred information services, the study selected to apply web usage mining, proxy level data collection and a vector space retrieval model to develop the personalised information support for teaching and research in a higher education institution.

There are practical constraints in the implementation stage. There is considerable difficulty in getting real and correct user interests and mapping them effectively into the products and services offered by the library. Also the interests of users change continuously. If multiple users share the same PC, it is difficult to identify the user as there is no one‐to‐one mapping between user and IP address.

The paper has not considered cases for all the faculty members due to time constraints. The results obtained from the system also need correlation with the sources actually used by the faculty to test its efficacy in a highly fluid research situation like higher academics.

A pragmatic client‐centred information support prototype described in this paper may find use in other institutions needing similar information support.

This paper demonstrates the pragmatic application of ICT for linking users and e‐resources in an academic library.

This article examines several library metadata standards, structures and schema relevant to the challenge of managing electronic resources. Among the standards, structures and schema to be discussed are MARC, METS, Dublin Core, EAD, XrML, and ODRL. The authors’ analysis reveals that there is currently no one standard, structure or schema that adequately addresses the complexity of e‐resource management. The article concludes with an outline and proposal for a new metadata schema designed to manage electronic resources.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the level of digital information literacy (DIL) skill and use of electronic resources by humanities graduate students at Kenneth Dike Library, University of Ibadan, Nigeria.

This paper uses the survey research design and 200 graduate students from the 12 departments that made up the Faculty of Arts in the University of Ibadan participated in the study. A self-devised structured questionnaire was used as instrument for data collection. A pilot questionnaire was first sent to a small random sample of the respondents, with feedback used to fine-tune the final questionnaire. Respondents were requested to rate their level of proficiency in the use of digital devices, web-based tasks, information finding, evaluation and utilisation of available e-resources and challenges encountered. Ethical consideration of informed consent, institutional permission, confidentiality and anonymity of participants was strictly followed. Data collected were analysed and result presented using descriptive statistics including frequencies, percentage, mean and inferential statistics such as regression analysis and Pearson’s product moment correlation coefficient were used to test the research question and hypothesis, respectively.

Humanities graduate students at the University of Ibadan possessed high level of DIL skills in respect of digital devices usage, web-based tasks, information finding and evaluation, but low in e-resources utilisation. This study identified inadequate knowledge of e-resources availability, irregular internet access, inadequate training on e-resources utilisation, inadequate staff assistance, lack of continuity in e-resources subscription and paucity of local contents in the e-resources as main challenges encountered by graduate students in the use of e-resources. To ensure that those who can most benefit from e-resources utilisation are not further marginalised, this study recommends that active steps should be taken to increase e-resources awareness, regular internet access, training/support, continuity of e-resources subscription and increased local content so that all may benefit from the opportunities of the information age.

This paper has demonstrated that DIL skills can enhance effective utilisation of e-resources if users have adequate knowledge of e-resources availability, regular internet access, adequate training and assistance on e-resources utilisation, continuity in database subscription and adequate local contents e-resources.

The purpose of this paper is to assess whether quality antecedents and individual characteristics can influence faculty members’ continued usage intention of electronic resources (e-resources) in selected public universities in Tanzania.

A total of 204 faculty members participated in the study from three public universities in Tanzania. The study used structural equation modelling, ANOVA and t-tests to perform analyses.

Better educated and middle-aged faculty members with a wide experience of using e-resources are more likely to continue using e-resources. Information quality had positive relationship with continued usage intention of e-resources while service quality had indirect impact to continued usage intention through information quality and system quality.

Based on the DeLone and McLean information systems success model, this study integrates quality factors (information, service and system quality) and individual characteristics as antecedents to the continued usage intention of e-resources. The study comprehensively documents empirical findings on impacts of quality factors and individual characteristics on e-resources in a developing country. The study reveals results that are useful for enhancing usage of e-resources by faculty in other institutions with similar conditions.